


Which Is the Tale of an Island, a Desert, and the People Thereof

by Ailavyn_Siniyash



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: (It was written in March, (so Skin Game wasn't a thing), 3-sentence fic, But I may as well post it, Drabble Collection, Gen, I'd completely forgotten about this, M/M, by the way)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-08
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 08:28:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2421914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailavyn_Siniyash/pseuds/Ailavyn_Siniyash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, that one where Cecil is Night Vale, Kevin is Desert Bluffs, Night Vale and Desert Bluffs are prototypes for Demonreach, Carlos is the Warden of Night Vale, Desert Bluffs has been infected by Nemesis, and this is all Harry Dresden’s problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Which Is the Tale of an Island, a Desert, and the People Thereof

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [5 DF Characters Who Visited Night Vale, & One Who Didn't Have to 'Cause He Came From There](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028275) by [Jade_Dragoness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Dragoness/pseuds/Jade_Dragoness). 



> A/N: Much, if not all, of the ideas stem from a conversation with Jade_Dragoness in the comments of her fic, Five DF Characters Visited Night Vale And One Who Didn’t Have To ‘Cause He Came From There, one of the only other WtNV/DF crossovers I’ve seen. 
> 
> Takes place mostly sometime post-“Lazy Day” for Night Vale and sometime post-Cold Days for Dresden. Spoilers up till those installments, especially most of the reveals in Cold Days. Note that I’m not currently caught up with Night Vale, so no spoilers, please!
> 
> The drabbles are all three sentences in length and arranged in no particular order whatsoever.
> 
> (Also, I apologise a thousand times, but Warden Carlos Ramirez of Los Angeles doesn’t feature. I couldn’t, to my great sorrow, find a way to fit him in.)

1.

 

Night Vale felt it, felt the moment when the adversary overcame its twin, the wave of horrified terror harshly suppressed that flashed through their connection. Quickly, it pulled down the safeguards they had prepared, pushing its memories of Desert Bluffs under a thick slab of hate, burying them, suppressing them, forgetting them.

 

And then it wondered why it had been sad, waited until the Weather was done, and got on with the broadcast.

 

2.

 

When Carlos first came to Night Vale, he’d been expecting to have to spend a week or two getting used to the place, learning the streets, and awkwardly asking people for directions, so it was to his considerable surprise when he found himself just… _knowing_ things. All it took was one thought about the semaphore-flag waving people at the street-corners and then all of a sudden he knew exactly how many of them there were, where they were stationed, and that there were two of them standing behind him. He tried not to use these apparent flashes of insight on a daily basis, because, after all, there was no scientific basis to them, and he made sure to always check them against his actual findings, but they never went away, and gradually, as he found himself adapting to Night Vale, he grew able at thinking the right things to get instant, accurate information--and the information was _always_ accurate.

 

3.

 

“There are _prototype yous_ in the American Southwest that I didn’t know about before two minutes ago, and you want me to go _visit_ one with no warning?”

 

Demonreach just looked at me like I was an idiot. I get no respect.

 

4.

 

Harry Dresden, the Warden of Demonreach, was a tall dark-haired man with a carved staff and a long black leather coat. And a _Star Wars_ tee-shirt.

 

“I prefer _Star Trek_ ,” said Carlos.

 

5.

 

It was on their second date that Cecil told him.

 

Carlos had suspected for a long time that the radio announcer wasn’t _precisely_ human, but he didn’t think much of it--this was Night Vale, after all.

 

Hearing that Cecil, the man who was now his boyfriend, was the _genius loci_ of this unscientifically strange town was... entirely unexpected, however.

 

6.

 

Harry borrowed Murphy’s phone to call Carlos, the Warden of Night Vale, and arrange a meeting. Demonreach seemed more amenable to letting one of them out than the desert town did, so they settled on Night Vale’s local pizza place, Big Rico’s.

 

“Don’t worry,” said Carlos, after a burst of static, “if Cecil wants you here, you’ll get here.”

 

7.

 

“Well, no, don’t be silly, dear Carlos. I’m a prison, and you’re my Warden.”

 

“I’m _what_?”

 

8.

 

When Mab heard of the dramatic change in state of one of the two lesser prisons, she had no doubt as to cause. Her interrogation of the remaining one was, while not uncourteous, still made ruthless by necessity, and though she left satisfied, she went to warn the major prison out of duty. Her new Knight could prove necessary to this coming struggle.

 

9.

 

The perfect person came into Night Vale, and the town couldn’t help admiring him, claiming him, giving itself to him as his sanctum. From that moment, he was marked, and none of the inmates of Night Vale could touch him, howevermuch they wanted to, for he was their Warden. And Night Vale loved him, and, eventually, he loved Night Vale back, and they were happy.

 

10.

 

When Night Vale found the tapes, it didn’t know what to expect. When it heard about its brother, it could not remember having one. But gradually, the memories trickled back, and panic grew in its mind as it realised why it had forgotten Desert Bluffs and what it had done to ward away that very force that was invading it now, and it was afraid.

 

11.

 

“It’s a good thing you’re stuck here--I’m bad enough, but having a vanilla mortal as the Warden of one of Merlin’s prisons would provoke some serious upheaval, and the world’s enough of a mess these days as it is.”

 

“Wait-- _Merlin_?”

 

“Yes, Merlin--he was plenty real, as is pretty much everything else you can think of.”

 

14.

 

The music from the radio in the wall of Big Rico’s changed to a smooth baritone, and Harry saw Carlos’s eyes light up.

 

“That’s Cecil,” he said, and then added, frowning, “or Night Vale, I guess--I’m still getting used to this.”

 

Carlos watched Harry’s face a bit more, seeming to come to a conclusion: “I guess Demonreach really isn’t the sort to have a day job, is he?”

 

15.

 

Harry watched from his meagre cover behind a car as the as-of-yet unidentified assailant tore furiously off--in precisely the wrong direction. Night Vale’s wards were less impressive when considering sheer power than Demonreach’s, certainly, but they seemed to be working well enough, which was really only to be expected, considering who made the place. And even if they gave out, they were buying him much-needed time to think of a plan that _didn’t_ involve burning down the town.

 

16.

 

While Demonreach generally processed information with regards as to how closely the new facts related to its duty, it allowed some leeway when the information was about its twin siblings. Merlin had created the other two-who-would-have-been-one as prototypes for itself, and thus they were endowed with less power, but, as they had been kept as a place to put less reality-threatening creatures than those dark gods which Demonreach held, they ended up with more sentience in exchange. Demonreach did not understand their insistence upon having “jobs” or the reasoning behind many other strange behaviours of theirs, but it was in its duty to send its Warden to help should something go wrong with them--and the Winter Queen’s news was dire indeed.

 

17.

 

When the yellow helicopters of StrexCorp came to Night Vale, the town began a furious, unnoticable battle to not only thrust them out, but to keep them, while they were there, in that same innocuous form. It knew how the adversary truly appeared, and it could see the creature without fear, but it was made to handle such horrors, and its dearest Carlos was not. And so, for Carlos, it put in an extra effort, and it struggled ever-harder against the creature from the Void who had taken its twin.

 

18.

 

“Hell’s bells,” I muttered, exasperated. “I learn about the adversary, and all of a sudden everything ever has to do with it. Can’t the forces of evil go somewhere else for once?”

 

19.

 

“Cecil, this is Harry Dresden, the Warden of Demonreach, Harry, this is Cecil, my boyfriend and, well, Night Vale.”

 

“The City Council is terrified of you, you know,” pointed out Night Vale--Cecil, I supposed, and this was weird even by my standards--amicably. I blinked.

 

20.

 

Night Vale always knew where Carlos was, because it always, always wanted to know. It occasionally entertained a passing thought on the theme of its Warden disliking this habit and accusing it of spying, but Carlos was its own, by the endless void, and it would keep him.

 

It just wanted him to be safe, and to stay.

 

21.

 

Carlos picked up the phone in his lab, which was shrilling in a sort of demented jingle (the phone, not the lab--and that was a distinction one only needed to make in Night Vale), and put it to his ear, shaking furiously with his pinky fingers until the noise stopped.

 

“Hello, I’m Harry Dresden. I’m looking for Carlos, the Warden of Night Vale?” said a voice, loud over lots of static.

 

22.

 

Cecil’s head whipped up sharply, and he said, “Someone’s trying to get past the wards!” to Carlos’s slight bemusement--he hadn’t even known there _were_ wards, though he supposed it made sense.

 

“Will they hold?” asked Harry, looking resigned.

 

“They could keep out a Queen of Faerie, so I’m pretty sure they’ll hold--unless it’s from the Outside, in which case we might be in trouble.”

 

23.

 

Though Night Vale was a very isolationist community, rumours and stories managed to find their way in occasionally, and therefore, Carlos had heard of Harry Dresden. Most of the stories were terrifying--not in and of themselves, (though many of them were), but because of the way the residents of Night Vale would react. If a single person could scare the City Council that much--well, Carlos didn’t want to consider the implications.

 

24.

 

“ _Just_ what I need, another Outsider. Starborn or not, He Who Walks Before nearly killed me.”

 

At the word ‘starborn’, Night Vale looked at me with new interest, which could only bode trouble.

 

25.

 

It had been a long time since Night Vale had a Warden.

 

Normally, one was not necessary, as the town could quite handily solve most of its problems by itself.

 

But then the adversary stole its sibling, and so, subconsciously, Night Vale sent out a call, and Carlos responded.

 

26.

 

Night Vale did not exist outside of the city limits, and the only way it maintained connection with Desert Bluffs was that they had originally been one entity. Having to rely on others for information frustrated it, at times, for with its _intellectus_ , it knew all that happened within itself, should it so wish. Still, it supposed that that could be a use of its Warden.

 

27.

 

“Wait--so, if you’re a prison and I’m a Warden, are… are the residents of this place all _inmates_?”

 

Cecil nodded. Carlos sucked in a panicked breath.

 

28.

 

It was called Night Vale because its second Warden Named it so. The Warden always said it was because she had come to the town at night under a veil of mist, and she _had_ been one for horrible puns, but Night Vale knew that there was more to it than that. It sometimes wondered why it was the only one of the three to have a name, and found itself hoping that its twin, at least, would be given one as well.

 

29.

 

Carlos was surprised when Cecil started talking about his adventures in Europe. This was partly because he’d never heard of the places Cecil mentioned, but then again, this was Night Vale, where skewed perceptions were everyday things--no, it was more that he’d been completely unaware that Cecil had ever left Night Vale before, and a quick check with the _knowing_ that he’d begun, more and more, to depend upon left him with the impression that Cecil _couldn’t_ leave Night Vale--or was it that he _was_ Night Vale? He couldn’t tell, and the insight had never been so inconclusive, so he put it aside to think about later as he resolved the current mess Night Vale had got itself into--and it faded into the background, until, sometime later, he forgot.

 

30.

 

In the weeks following Cecil’s revelations, Carlos found himself glancing back over his shoulder every few seconds, the paranoia he had felt upon his move to Night Vale flooding back, albeit manifesting in questions to the _knowing_ rather than panicked scuttles back to his lab. He could not help but wonder what all the citizens--inmates, he corrected himself--had done to merit imprisonment is such a place as the town. It wasn’t news to him that the residents of Night Vale were more than slightly unhinged, but what could those kind people like Old Woman Josie and her angels, or the station interns, or even The Faceless Old Women have done that was so horrible?

 

31.

 

“Since I came here, I’ve had this-- this thing I call the _knowing_ , where if I even think about something, all of a sudden I know everything about it, and I can’t figure out what is causing it,” said Carlos in a rush.

 

Harry said, “Probably _intellectus_. I have it on Demonreach.”

 

32.

 

“Knowing my life, whatever’s attacking is after me,” said Harry. He was chasing after the other two, slower and more cumbersome without the pinpoint accuracy _intellectus_ gave them. (Though he honestly didn’t get why Cecil wasn’t just appearing there--the _genius loci_ of Night Vale was strange.)

 

33.

 

Night Vale was falling to the adversary and none but itself knew. It refused to expose its Warden to the horror, but it needed help. It chose the inmate with the best combination of bravery and skill, and carefully, imperceptibly, gave her ideas, and Tamika Flynn went to war.

 

34.

 

Demonreach did not think about Night Vale and Desert Bluffs very often. They existed outside of it, and they were most often irrelevant to its duty. However, occasionally, very occasionally, it turned its thoughts to them, and wondered whether, as its newest Warden would say, they were ‘alright’.

 

35.

 

“Look, Cecil, at some point I’m going to have to leave Night Vale. Not permanently,” he added on seeing the spirit of Night Vale’s expression, “I’ll always be back, but I might need to visit my parents, or something else like that. I know you’re afraid to lose me, but it would only be temporary.”

 

36.

 

“How did you end up as Night Vale’s Warden, anyways?”

 

“Well, Cecil sort of picked me. I didn’t even know about the whole thing until we were dating.”

 

37.

 

The residents of Night Vale were weird, decided Harry. And that was really saying something, because his standards of weird were far higher than the rest of the world. Still, most of them didn’t seem too bad, and he’d certainly been in worse places.

 

38.

 

It had been a long time since the Wardens of Demonreach and Night Vale had spoken. It was infrequent that both would have a Warden at the same time, and, sometimes, that those Wardens would be able and willing to act as proxies. Therefore, Night Vale waited in anticipation as Harry Dresden arrived to speak with its Carlos, and was impatient to meet the Warden of Demonreach itself.

 

39.

 

The night after the yellow helicopters came to Night Vale, Cecil looked strained. Most people wouldn’t have noticed, but Carlos wasn’t most people, and he knew what Cecil looked like when he wasn’t well.

 

When he asked what was wrong, however, he didn’t get an answer.

 

40.

 

Night Vale sat back, listening to the Weather. It felt the Warden of Demonreach crossing its border, felt him wink out of range of _intellectus_ , and smiled. It was good to know how its younger sibling was doing, and it knew its Carlos was happy--in spite of the constant threat of the adversary, all was well.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> original worldbuilding thread: http://archiveofourown.org/comments/6173847


End file.
